EastDivCombo.jpg (2262 bytes) WestDivCombo.jpg (2267 bytes)
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Just is it did in many other innovative ways, the American
Football League had a unique take on the uniforms of
referees, umpires, linesmen, field judges and back judges. With their
red-orange stripes, black collars and cuffs, and AFL logos
on their shirt fronts, sleeves and caps,
they were not only more colorful, but easier to see than
those of the other league. This page is to recognize
an important but seldom credited part of the game: the
American Football League's on-field officials.
In his
book
COLORS, Jim
Finks Jr., son of the Hall-of-Famer,
shows the original uniform of AFL official Jack Reader, who
was a Back Judge in both the first and third World
Championship games, and who was in an iconic
Sports Illustrated photo, signaling touchdown
after Matt Snell's 4-yard plunge against the Colts.
Finks sent us the images below, of Reader's original uniform. I hope to add
below the name
of every man who officiated in the American Football League,
the genesis of modern Professional Football. I am
indebted to Albert Klumpp for the major portion of this
list, and to Dave Owczarzak, a.k.a. AFL collector
bflodave. If anyone has 1960 and 1961 records of AFL
officials, please help me complete the
list. Thanks, too, to Jim Tunney, former NFL
supervisor of officials, who provided contact information.
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Al Huetter's
winter uniform shirt and cap.
1961 - 1968 (Courtesy
John Boutet)
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Bob Austin:Supervisor of AFL Officials 1960-1965
Mel Hein: Supervisor of AFL Officials 1966-1969
Texas A&M
R
60-62
16
Compiled by Albert Klumpp
SOURCES:
1960 AFL Game Program - Oilers at Texans 9/2/60; 1961
AFL Game Program - Broncos at Titans 9/24/61; The Sporting News annual
Official AFL Guides,
1962-1969.
NOTES: Position listings provided only in 1960
Program and 1966-1969 Guides; uniform numbers
provided only on 1960 and 1961 Programs and 1966-1969
Guides; colleges not provided in 1960 Program.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: 1960 list provided by AFL fan Jim
Fulton; 1961 list provided by memorabilia dealer Jack Wallin
('hull9howe999'
on
e-bay).
~
I have created a page about AFL officials, on Wikipedia. Click here to see it. See individual official's pages there, to read more tidbits like those below.
The article below is from a 1970 Buffalo
Bills game program. It lists all
Professional Football officials who
worked games in 1970. Former
American Football League officials'
names are highlighted. Uniform
numbers and positions listed in this
table may have changed from those in
effect while in the AFL. The photo
is of Frank Rustich, an AFL line judge
in an AFL uniform, number 51. Some
of the officials wore different numbers
after the merger. The above list
shows only the numbers they wore in the
American Football League.
There were 34
on-field officials in the AFL in 1969.
Interestingly, 32 of them,
from an "inferior league", were good
enough to continue to officiate after
the merger. One of them was Cal
Lepore, now known as "the father of
instant replay". He also
promulgated the use of replay to review
the accuracy of on-field calls, for the
evaluation of officials' performance.
Another important link from the American Football
League to today's Professional Football.
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The photo below is was taken at Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium in 1962. AFL officials: Bob Wortman, Jack Reader, Walter Fitzgerald, Tony Veteri, and Al Huetter. Photo from Huetter's son Jim, courtesy of Marinaro's Larkin Tavern, 131 Van Rensselaer Street, Buffalo.
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2009 "Legacy" cap,
no longer
available.
Original AFL
Official's cap,
image courtesy of
Scott Davis.
More RED
than ORANGE, wasn't it?
Image may contain: people standing and stripes
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